To change, to confound
(Wechseln, verwechseln)
(1983)
- Medium
- synthetic polymer paint on canvas
- Measurements
- 260.5 × 350.5 cm
- Accession Number
- IC2-1987
- Department
- Contemporary Art
- Credit Line
- National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased from Admission Funds, 1987
© A.R. Penck /Copyright Agency, 2019.
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Ms Carol Grigor through Metal Manufactures Limited - Gallery location
- Level 3, NGV International
- About this work
-
Ralf Winkler’s adoption of the name A. R. Penck on the occasion of his first exhibition in West Germany in 1969 signalled his deliberate attempt to work against an aesthetic identifiable by either name or style. Penck lived under the East German Communist system until 1980, unable to visit the exhibitions of his work occurring in the West or to display his art in the country of his birth. To change, to confound, reflects the psychological effects of postwar German society, exploiting the graphic potential of black and white and the raw strength of the artist’s totemic figures to investigate unequal power structures and highlight the possible aggression that can exist between people.
- Subjects (general)
- Abstract Art Human Figures
- Subjects (specific)
- black-and-white (colours) contrast creatures flat (form attributes) geometric shape men (male humans) primitivism (artistic concept) shape (form attribute)
- Movements
- Neo-Expressionism